The Most Currently Up To Date Projected '18 Lakers Depth Chart

Different players. Cauley-Stein is more of a pick and roll defender who can switch everything and guard multiple positions. Upshaw is a great rim protector.

 

^not bad? LOL.

You think some late first rounders and a 19 year old will make this team any good?

so much trash on this team...LA won 26 games last year, mostly because of Williams and Russell...

this year they will be back to around 20 wins and continue to be a joke.

 

Just have to insert Bron and PG in there and they will be alright.

 

IF that's where our off-season ends and that's the team we trot out next season, Boston will be getting another very high lottery pick.

 

The depth chart will be:

Ball/(27)/Ennis
Clarkson/Nwaba
Ingram/Deng/(28)
Randle/Nance Jr.
Lopez/Zubac/Black

So far I don't think that team is worse than last year. It'll be a 30 win team or so. I'd like to see Clarkson out and George in...

 

You honestly think that team wins 30 games? Lou Williams and be Russell IMO were the main reason we got to 26 last season. I don't see it, Lopez is decent, but it hasn't added up to wins as Brooklyn won 21 and 20 games the last 2 seasons, and I like Ball a lot, but I don't think he immediately adds wins. I think that team is worse than the roster that we started this past season with.

 

Yeah I do think they win 30 games. I think Lopez will be a pleasant surprise. I think Ball adds value and I think the rest comes on increased development and expectations. We're no longer tanking at any point this upcoming season. I think some of the close games become wins with more experience and a reliable guy like Lopez who is a 20 ppg guy. If you think about it 30 wins is just 4 more games.

Do you think Russell's value is that much greater than or even equal to Lopez and Ball?

 

No, I think Russell and Lou Williams value is greater or equal to theirs. We did a lot of our winning with Lou, if not the majority. You send that roster minus Lou from last season out and our win total is in the teens. I appreciate optimism, real, but that roster is awful. I like Ball a lot, but we have no idea what his impact on wins and losses will be yet, and while Lopez can score, he's not a defender in the slightest and he's a pathetic rebounder for a 7 footer. If we don't add George for cheap, that roster is lucky to win 20 games unless Ingram breaks out, Ball is awesome, we find some hidden gem at 27/28, and Deng is brought back from the dead.

 

Driving now but I'll set ya right in a couple hours.

 

Set me right too. Cause I'm with Weezy. With no PG-13 trade, that team is at about the same win total as last year. Ball AND Ingram would have to play out of their minds. Randle would have to improve his play as much as he improved his body. That team will get slaughtered on a nightly basis. Even with PG-13 swapped out for Clarkson, that team probably only gets 35-38 wins.

 

Weezy has basically written what I would have written.

 

Alright here we go.

Last season the Lakers ended with a 26-56 record, correct?

The Lakers stopped playing Timofey Mozgov on 2/6/17 and they took Luol Deng out of the starting lineup on 2/6/17. Luol stopped playing altogether on 2/28/17. The Lakers traded Lou Williams on 2/23/17 to Houston for a 1st round pick. Let's say that the catalyst for their "tank" was the Lou Williams trade. We played 24 games after the "tank" was officially, undeniably on. That's almost a third of the year we played guys out of position or gave bad players more time in order to "grow" knowing full well it'd cost us games. I have to think we'd have won at least couple more games in that time with or without Lou Williams just based on the fact we'd have a set rotation that we're not actively trying to lose with. Tyler Ennis played almost 40 minutes twice for us. That should never happen. David Nwaba played over 30 minutes for us twice. That should never happen.

That brings me to my next point: Lou Williams cost us as many games as he won. How many times did we get to the fourth and Lou came up short? More often than when we won games I would say and it was a frequent point of contention: was he helping or hurting us by barring the young their moments to shine. I would call Lou's value a push and what we're talking about now is the difference in Lou Williams/D'Angelo Russell and Brook Lopez/Lonzo Ball. I think in terms of scoring, no question the former is better. In terms of overall basketball, I think the latter is probably better if not equal. We've yet to see Lonzo on the floor, but I think two things translate fairly quickly if nothing else at all: less turnovers and an outside jumper. Lou Williams rarely impacted anything other than scoring and if he was off he was a massive net negative. While it's fair that we can't really quantify Lonzo and Brook Lopez hasn't moved the needle, personally I believe this is also a net couple of wins. I believe it's easier to look for Brook Lopez down the stretch of games than Lou Williams. Lou requires an incredibly difficult perimeter game based mostly on fouls to make things work. Brook Lopez is a guy who shoots 67% at the rim and 80% at the FT line. Brook also shot better in late quarter situations as well as in the 4th quarters of games. I say this is a net couple of games.

The other factor of course is simple growth. I believe (assuming no more trades) that Randle, Ingram, and Clarkson come back better than a year ago. I believe Nance Jr. and Zubac come back better than a year ago. I believe a team not in transitions of leadership improves their culture. I believe all of that together equals at least one freaking game. We had 23 losses of less than 10 points. Those games can swing either way and with another year under the belt for certain players, I believe they take a couple more of those types of games.

Thus: I believe an increase in 4 games, just 4 games over an 82 game season, just 5% of the year, can be ours with that lineup. To go from 26 wins to 30 wins subtracting really just D'Angelo and to a lesser extent Williams who wasn't here all year and adding Lonzo Ball and Brook Lopez is nothing to roll your eyes at. Could they do worse? Sure it's possible, but it's not crazy to think they could do better as well.